>>12297574>Mareep [has] something that helps differentiate it from its animal counterpartYes. A weird tail with a ball at the tip and huge, striped ears.
That's
it.
Nidoran are rodents, Lanturn is an angler fish, Milotic is a sea snake, Luxray is a lion, Scolipede is a centipede, and this yellow guy is a lizard. What do they have in common? That's right: cartoony animals.
It doesn't matter how small is the difference between Pokémon and real animals, they will always have some particular quirk. In the end they are all just cartoony animals or animated objects, because the essence of Pokémon is "cartoony powerful creatures". There's no more to look at it.
